Proton MR spectroscopy of the thalamus in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

1
Radiology, New York University Langone
Medical Center, New York, NY, United States,
2
School
of Medicine, New York University Langone Medical Center,
New York, NY, United States,
3
Multiple
Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center, New York University
Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

Despite a well-documented involvement of the thalamus in
multiple sclerosis, its metabolism in early disease has
not been studied. We used 3D multivoxel proton MR
spectroscopy and software-generated segmentation masks
to (i) determine the optimal tradeoff between partial
volume and reproducibility; and to (ii) apply this
threshold to study 18 recently diagnosed patients and 10
controls. Absolute concentrations of thalamic N-acetyl-aspartate,
creatine, choline and myo-inositol were not different
between the two groups, and there was no thalamic
atrophy. We interpret these results as evidence for
thalamic sparing, but note the very low levels of
clinical disability and lesion load in our cohort.

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